Kim

With 17 novels and dozens of short stories to his name, Robert Colby remains one of my favorite authors of the paperback original era. Kim was a 1962 hardboiled private-eye mystery mispackaged as a sex novel by Monarch Books. It remains available today from two separate reprint publishers - Wildside Press and Prologue Books.

The narrator is Miami private detective Rod Striker whose practice involves helping wealthy clients with personal problems. His latest client is rich Aunt Martha, who is concerned about her 22 year-old niece, Kim. She’s engaged to a nice boy, but she had a fling with a local strip club pimp named Eddie Tarino who runs a sex-for-pay boat between Miami and the Bahamas. Tarino wants Kim on board as his personal escort and is threatening her fiancé and aunt with physical harm if Kim doesn’t comply. Aunt Martha wants Striker to drag Tarino into a dark alley and beat him until he begs for mercy and promises to stay away from Kim. 

Rather than beginning the assignment with violence, Striker decides to visit Tarino and talk some sense to the pimp. The meeting of these two Alpha Males is really something special, and Striker discovers that there’s way more to the story than his client initially understood. He also follows up with Kim, who —as expected — is a dish to end all dishes The author’s description of her cans will stay with me forever.

Striker has a partner at his PI agency named Myra. She’s a beautiful 29 year-old ex-cop from Los Angeles. The author does a great job describing her to make every man reading the novel fall in love with her. Striker and Myra are occasionally romantically involved, although the relationship is mostly business. Much later in the novel, the first-person narration switches from Striker to Myra. I normally hate that crap, but it worked this time because they’re both awesome characters. 

A mystery arises for Striker and Myra to solve:  Who is pulling the strings behind this manipulation of Kim? There are sex scenes along the way, and they’re white-hot in a 1962 kinda way. To be clear, this is a first-class hardboiled mystery with two great leads. The paperback had some pacing problems in the second half, but the twisty conclusion was straight aces. 

Bottom Line: Another winner from Robert Colby. Go ahead and add this one to your reading queue. 

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Burnt Offerings

Horror luminaries Stephen King and Bentley Little have both acknowledged Burnt Offerings as an influence on their writing. The novel, authored by Robert Marasco, was originally published in 1973 and adapted into an MGM film in 1976. The book is available now as a reprint through Valancourt Books with an introduction by Stephen Graham Jones. 

In the book, Ben and Marian Rolfe live in the crowded city of Queens, New York and are barely surviving the day to day hustle and bustle of work, marriage, and parenthood. The city is consuming them, eating away their existence and crushing their dreams and aspirations. Ben realizes this isn't a place to raise their young son David. In hopes of a fantastic family summer, Marian begins searching the classified ads for a summer place they can rent with their meager budget. Ben works as a professor, so Memorial Day through Labor Day affords them the opportunity to get away from it all. 

Marian locates an advertisement for a summer house in upstate New York. It's an appealing invitation of private beach, pool, dock, magnificent views, and the price, while not disclosed, suggests it might be affordable. The three drive up for the weekend to visit the place and negotiate with the owners. Their arrival proves to be disappointing. 

The house, which is a 30-room mansion, is in disarray. The once lush landscape is now dead, the exterior is crumbling, and the inside is dusty, ancient, and clearly neglected. But, it has potential and could be a great way to spend a summer vacation. The house is owned by Mrs. Allardyce and her elderly son and daughter. The deal works out to just $900 for the whole summer - a bargain if there ever was one. The only catch is that the Rolfes will be sharing the house with Mrs. Allardyce, a frail, sickly woman that lives in the west wing of the house. Her children explain that she doesn't leave her room and rarely makes an appearance. The Rolfes just need to leave a tray of food for her three times per day. This burden isn't that heavy.

Once the Rolfes settle into the house for the summer, their family ties begin to deteriorate. Marian begins to spend more and more time on the west wing cleaning. Ben begins a descent into madness, peaking as he attempts to drown David in the pool. Marian and Ben's relationship unravels, but oddly, the house begins to come alive with new paint and landscaping. The house is growing as the Rolfes sacrifice their happiness and love. Who's the master and servant? Is the house haunted? Is Mrs. Allardyce even real? These are the questions that arise throughout the book's haunting narrative.

American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction, by Dale Bailey, compares Burnt Offerings with a later novel, Anne River's Siddon's The House Next Door and of course, the staple of 1970s haunted house fiction, Jay Anson's The Amityville Horror. I've now read all three, and while I still prefer Anson's dark and twisted narrative, Marasco's work is much grimmer and intelligent, dwelling on a biblical emphasis of sacrifice and loyalty. There's a deep social subtext to Marasco's storytelling – the price of happiness, humanity's lust for material things, the financial burdens of average Americans, the limits of sacrifice, and the strains of the family dynamic in modern culture. 

The family's descent into despair is a heart-wrenching spectacle for readers, especially considering these characters are so easily likable in the book's opening chapters. The mystery involving the west wing was captivating, leading me to question whether some of the events happening were real or just a malevolent facade. Mrs. Allardyce's identity was like a dangling carrot, suspended for readers to finally uncover in the book's closing pages. The house, a character unto itself, was remarkably detailed to enhance the transformation from ruin to prosperity. 

Stephen King, as he acknowledged, probably owes a great deal to Marasco for the success of his 1977 novel The Shining, published just four years after Burnt Offerings. Like Marasco's plot, King replaces the Rolfes with the Torrance family, equally introduced as a strained married couple raising their young son. King transfers the location of a 30-room mansion in upstate New York to the empty Overlook Hotel in Colorado. Ben Rolfe is struggling with a text, like Jack Torrance's frustrated efforts to finish writing a manuscript. Marasco utilizes a deep swimming pool as an eventful place where young David faces death. King uses the mysterious hotel room 217 to captivate Danny Torrance (and a bathtub to be technical). Alternatively, Marian's fascination with the door to Mrs. Allardyce's room is similar to Danny often approaching 217's door. In other words, I hope King cut Marasco a check. 

Burnt Offerings is an abstract horror novel, working on a psychological level that is crafted with expertise. As an entry in the overpopulated “haunted dwelling” sub-genre, it is easily in the upper echelon of mandatory reads along with the aforementioned The Amityville Horror, The House Next Door and pioneering efforts like Richard Matheson's Hell House, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Unfortunately, Marasco didn't pursue another horror novel that I'm aware of. To quote John Carpenter, “I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare.” 

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Sea Vengeance

British author Robert Leader (b. 1938) had worked as a Merchant Marine, bartender, and a factory worker before becoming a full-time novelist. He wrote over 200 short stories and sold them to magazines like Reveille, Titbits, London Evening News and London Mystery. He found success authoring a series of 10 espionage thrillers starring British agent Simon Larren. Collectively, British publisher Robert Hale published over 40 of his novels, most authored under his real name or pseudonyms like Robert Charles or Robert Brandon. Some were exported to the U.S. by Pinnacle. My first experience with the author is his 1974 novel Sea Vengeance. It was published in the U.S. by Pinnacle with a cover by Phil Marini.

The first few chapters of Sea Vengeance plays out like the exciting 1992 Steven Seagal action film Under Siege.  Chief Officer John Steele, a Korean War veteran, is working on board the Shantung as it departs embattled Saigon en route to peaceful Singapore. The large ship features eight cabins, each containing a diverse variety of passengers. Within a few hours, Steele and the crew discover that the group of Buddhist monks on board are actually Viet Cong hijackers. They kill a few of the Shantung crew and severely injure its Captain.  

With the ship under command of a Viet Cong leader named Thang, Steele works in stealth to capture weapons and free passengers. His betrayal comes from an unlikely suspect, a lover he has met on board named Lin Chi. Together, Chi, Thang, and the Viet Cong have plans to use the ship to rescue a number of their allies from a small prison camp off the coast of  battle-torn Vietnam.

At 182 pages, Sea Vengeance is brimming over with exciting danger and intrigue. Steele proves to be the capable hero – admirable, courageous, and willing to sacrifice his life for others. As a propulsive action yarn, the scenes with Steele secretly working “behind the enemy” to secure the ship was really engaging. With the author's vast experience on merchant ships, I found some of these scenes had a sense of realism. While Steele's struggles with the Viet Cong on the ship were effective, page turning events, I applaud the author's introspective commentary. 

The combatants in the Vietnam War are presented positively by the author, both condemnation and worthy appraisal provided through a philosophical look at war and its aftermath. This isn't a stretch from Leader's wheelhouse considering he has written a number of non-fiction books on religion, philosophy, and his travel experiences. He certainly has the credentials and education to provide thought-provoking dialogue between these volatile characters. I found that to be one of the biggest highlights. 

If you enjoy Vietnam military history, or love a great nautical or war story, then Sea Vengeance is highly recommended. I found it to be similar to Australian author James Edmond Macdonnell's series of World War 2 novels starring Captain Walt Kenyon. Just don't be surprised with some of the heavy dialogue sequences. While it doesn't bog the narrative down, it may slow the excitement for those of you looking for just head-on carnage. 

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James Bond #04 - Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth installment of Ian Fleming's wildly successful James Bond series of spy-thrillers. It was originally published by Jonathan Cape in the U.K. in 1956. The novel's central theme is diamond smuggling, a criminal operation that intrigued Fleming enough to not only use it as a plot, but also a non-fiction book he wrote in 1957, The Dimaond Smugglers. In 1971, the novel was adapted into the seventh James Bond film. 

In the book's opening chapters, Bond and his superior M engage in a deep discussion about the diamond industry. At the time, England was importing diamonds from Africa and then selling large amounts to various international companies and countries. It made up a large percentage of the country's income and represented what would ultimately be one of the largest diamond exporting operations. One of the largest buyers, House of Diamonds, has reduced their purchases of English diamonds, creating a financial gap in the Brits lucrative business. 

It's explained that House of Diamonds is a legitimate business owned and controlled by an American mob family named The Spangs. M, and the Special Branch, suspect that a criminal element has been introduced which is creating the rift. House of Diamonds surely must be obtaining their diamonds by smuggling them in at a cheaper price. M wants Bond to investigate the operation by infiltrating the smuggling ring into New York and Las Vegas under the disguise of a common burglar named Peter Franks. He wants Bond to engage in the job and then converse with a woman named Tiffany Case, one of the gang members involved in the smuggling.  

Bond's journey is quite epic, first beginning in New York to retrieve the smuggling money owed on the latest smuggle. His payer is a gang leader named Shady Tree. He explains that their operation doesn't just pay out the full payment for security reasons. To fulfill his payout to Bond, aka Peter Franks, he orchestrates a number of rigged gambling ventures that will produce fragmented payments. The first payout is an exciting stretch at a rigged horse race in Saratoga. Then, a rigged blackjack game in Las Vegas dealt by Tiffany. But, Bond flips the score and pays off the jockey to disrupt the payoff and then wins too much money at blackjack.

If I provide anything else pertaining to the story, it's going to provoke you to skip Ian Fleming and just read me. I'd never forgive myself. Here's the thing, read Diamonds Are Forever if you want to see Bond deeply entrenched in hardboiled danger. Fleming throws everything but the kitchen sink at readers: intrigue on a ship, danger in the desert, a train-car chase, torture, romance, and gunplay. The chemistry between Tiffany and Bond was perfect with both needing something from each other. Former American CIA agent Felix Leiter returns to this book and I found his addition to the story effective. My only real complaint is the “cowboy” appearance of one of the Spangs and the longer than necessary ending. Otherwise, Bond absolutely wins again. Recommended. 

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The Freakshow

According to his Goodreads profile, Bryan Smith has authored more than thirty horror and crime novels and novellas. His crime-fiction book 68 Kill was adapted into a critically-acclaimed film in 2017. Smith also co-scripted an original Harley Quinn (Batman) story for DC Comics' House of Horrors anthology. I first discovered the author in the mid-2000s by reading his mass-market horror paperbacks like House of Blood and Deathbringer. His 2007 horror novel The Freakshow was originally published by Leisure and has now been reprinted by Grindhouse Press in multiple formats. 

The Freakshow is splatterpunk with the obligatory copious amounts of sex (mostly rape), gore, and violence prevalent over the science-fiction and dark fantasy elements. The novel's concept is that supernatural beings from a netherworld are playing a game where they control humans to do just about anything imaginable. These “things” are losing their home world, so they want ours. By conquering humans through assimilation, they can move from the netherworld into ours. 

These beings are sort of like Clive Barker's Cenobites from his novella The Hellbound Heart and the franchise of films. They have a variety of appearances and abilities and aren't necessarily good or evil, thus the “angels to some, demons to others” sentiment of Barker's stories is the theme of The Freakshow. Because of the variation, Smith's imagination runs wild. There's a two-headed succubus leader, a robotic clown, sexually depraved humans (if you can call them that), rolling heads that chomp flesh, you get the general consensus.

It's hard to find any characters to really cheer other than Heather, a young woman in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend and dealing with an ailing mother. She is the main character, but that's a loose term considering the book has a dozen or more characters. Mostly these characters are disposable and make for rape and torture targets. The story presents characters that are fighting the freakshow invaders or working for these supernatural beings. Mostly, the characters just dwell on perverse sex and creative ways to kill or maim each other. There's no respect for any higher authority beyond their own self-interest 

Overall, I found the book to be slightly better than average. With Smith's literary work, I manage my expectations, knowing that his narratives are saturated in over-the-top violence and gore. There's nothing wrong with that, but I normally like my horror to be more psychological than physical. If a unique, violent bloodbath is your thing, then The Freakshow will surely please you.

Note – Brian Keene's Urban Gothic and this book tie-in to a novel called Suburban Gothic, authored by both Keene and Smith. 

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The Brat

The Brat, published in 1957 by Fawcett Gold Medal, was Gil Brewer's 12th career effort, a mid-era crime-noir that is misrepresented by the book's sultry cover. Fans of Brewer's sexier femme fatale novels, like The Vengeful Virgin (1958) or The Tease (1967) may be led to believe that The Brat possesses that same energy level. It includes all of the potent ingredients to make the narrative seemingly explode – wild women, lust, greed, criminality, and average men pushed from their suburban threshold into a world of madness. Like Orrie Hitt, Brewer loved this type of storytelling experience - the sexy seductress weaving a master-plan. But, The Brat doesn't utilize these ingredients to create anything magical. 

In this novel, Brewer mimics Day Keene's more simplistic approach. It makes sense considering the two were friends and even collaborated together. If I didn't know better, I would have pegged The Brat as a Keene novel. The narrative is saturated in genre tropes that are familiar to any seasoned crime-noir fan. The narrative's central element is identical to the “man awakens to find a corpse and flees from the law to prove his own innocence” concept. Only, Brewer exchanges the swanky apartment, soft bed, or suburban house with a bank.

Lee is a fairly wealthy guy before his trip into Florida swampland. It's in the sweltering jungle that he finds the sexy Evis, a backwoods tramp that he can't resist. Her family is redneck loonies, so Evis is rescued by Lee and soon the two ring the wedding bells. But, Evis’ domestication is ripe with greed and self-interest. She carves through Lee's savings, leaving the two almost destitute just a short time later. Evis, who conveniently works at the local bank, pitches Lee a heist plan. She can easily steal money from the bank's vault during her closing shift. Lee slightly agrees, but doesn't want to commit to steering into that lane yet.

Lee arrives from work one evening to find that Evis is working at the bank and she needs him to pick her up. When he arrives at the bank, there's a corpse, missing money, missing spouse, and enough evidence that suggests he collaborated with Evis to commit this criminal act. Terrified of being fried for murder, Lee hits the road to pursuit Evis. Along the way, he is tracked by a greedy sheriff that wants the money all to himself. There's also Lee's best friend that may have been Evis's side hustle to seduce into a joint heist. Lee must avoid the police, find Evis and the missing cash, and prove he is innocent. 

Brewer's novel  is one long road trip as Lee hops from destination to destination searching for clues. The pacing and plot structure never allows the narrative to breathe, making the characters one-dimensional and over-obsessive. This is Day Keene's wheelhouse and he excels at it far better than Brewer. The Brat is similar to Brewer's Sin for Me (1967) novel with its western feel and seemingly endless manhunt. If you must read everything Brewer has written, then you aren't skipping The Brat. Otherwise, there's no need to spend any time reading this less than satisfactory novel.

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All the Way

Charles Williams (1909-1975) was the best American author of 20th century crime-noir fiction that most Americans have never encountered. Thanks to some smart reprint publishers, his work is being introduced to a new generation of readers looking for propulsive plotting and gritty, vivid characterizations. All the Way was a 1958 paperback also released under the title The Concrete Flamingo that has been reprinted by Stark House.

The narrator is a drifter named Jerry Forbes, who’s in Key West, Florida when he spots a sexy dame on the beach giving him the eye. Her name is Marian Forsyth, and she’s a secretary in a small Louisiana town. From the moment they meet, Jerry knows that Marian has a hidden agenda. Even the sex between them feels transactional. For those who read a lot of these types of books, this dame has femme fatale written all over her. 

After getting to know one another a bit, Marian proposes an idea to Jerry. She needs Jerry to impersonate her boss to move money from a stock account into their hands as a prelude to murdering the boss. Marian used to be his mistress, and he failed to marry her. Hell hath no fury and all that. 

As usual, Williams’ writing is head-and-shoulders better than his contemporaries. The monologues he wrote for Marian explaining the humiliation she suffered at the hands of her boss are staggering. The book is a bit of a slow burn, but Williams keeps the emotions running high, so the reader understands the narrator’s anxious longing for this woman bent on destroying another man. 

All the Way is basically the story of a complex and dicey long con. It’s an inventive paperback, but you need to be patient with the novel’s sluggish pace. This elaborate identity theft scheme doesn’t unfold with breakneck action. This culminates in one of the most bleak and tragic conclusions I can remember reading in ages. 

All the Way was compelling and interesting, but I don’t think it’s top-shelf Charles Williams. It would have been more impactful as a 50-page novella in Manhunt Magazine. If you’re working your way through Williams’ entire body of work, you’ll probably enjoy the novel just fine, but don’t make this your first stop. 

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Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis #01 - Murder in Mykonos

Jeffrey Siger is a Pittsburgh native who fell in love with Greece and has written 11 contemporary police procedural novels starring an Athens cop reassigned to the tourist island of Mykonos. The first installment is titled Murder In Mykonos, and it was originally published in 2011.  The Greeks have gone bonkers for this series despite being written by an American who is only a part-timer in the ancient nation, so I wanted to see what the fuss is all about. 

Mykonos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea 90 miles from Athens. During the months of July and August, the population explodes from about 10,000 to over 50,000 as European tourists descend on the vacation island thick with 16th century windmills, dance clubs, and white-sand beaches matching the sun-baked white buildings. This is the island that our hero, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis now calls home. He was an ass-kicking hardboiled cop in Athens who was transferred to sleepy Mykanos after the wealthy residents of the island demanded better, more aggressive policing. 

Early in his new island job as Police Chief, a murdered body of a missing tourist girl is found hidden in an abandoned church. Further investigation shows that the murder may be connected to an earlier homicide, making Andreas come to the preliminary conclusion that there is a serial killer operating on this island paradise — a fact that would be devastating to the tourist-based local economy. Even worse, the murders seemed to be ritual killings of some sort. 

Mykonos makes its money from tourism and the island’s leaders doesn’t want anything to upset the visitor trade. As such, there’s a tendency to sweep bad news under the rug. If someone reports a missing foreign woman in Mykonos, the police instinct is to assume she left willingly and no missing-person report is filed. This poses a real challenge to Andreas as he’s trying to get his hands around the number of missing girls who may have been victimized by this hypothetical serial killer. 

Anyone with an interest in serial killer police procedural mysteries or life in the Greek Islands is sure to be pleased with Murder in Mykonos. The fact that it was written by an American was helpful because he took the time to explain things to readers unfamiliar with Greek culture or the unusual setting. No punches are pulled in thoughtful critiques of the island, its residents, and the underlying political climate. 

If you like crime fiction set in exotic locales, this novel is for you. Siger knows his way around the structure of a good mystery novel, and his characters are vivid and fully-realized. I look forward to the next Andreas Kaldis novel. Recommended. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

James Bond #03 - Moonraker

James Bond's third series installment, Moonraker, was first published in the U.K. as a hardcover by Cape on April 5, 1955. Macmillan published the U.S. edition on September 20, 1955, followed by Pan Books publishing a paperback edition in the U.K. a month later. In December of 1955, Permabooks published a paperback version in the U.S. under the title Too Hot to Handle. In 1979, the book's title was used for the eleventh James Bond film and the fourth appearance of Roger Moore as the Secret Service hero and heartthrob. The film's production company, Eon Productions, authorized Christopher Wood to write a novelization of the film, which was published under the title James Bond and Moonraker (a bestseller that I've heard is quite terrible). 

In Moonraker, Fleming begins by providing a more intimate look at Bond's day-to-day activities. Readers gain a peek into his home, his routines, and his official desk assignments when he isn't globetrotting to extinguish international fires. It's shown that Bond is having affairs with three married women, works a desk schedule of 10 to 6, and likes to play cards in the evenings with friends. 

Fleming reveals that Bond uses a stimulant known as Benzedrine to stay awake and alert, and even combines the amphetamine with champagne. It was also,interesting to watch his habit of sprinkling black pepper on the surface of vodka. 

It is all of these things that further connected me to the character. I also found it fascinating that Bond was contemplating how many more assignments he has to complete before he can retire. He even fathoms how many will introduce the real possibility of his own death. It was written in such a poignant way that made me sympathize with him. Personally, I felt that his characteristics from Casino Royale were further enhanced by this novel. The idea that he wants to move on and have a normal existence is re-visited at the beginning and ending of Moonraker, leaving an emotional impact on readers.

Down to business, M approaches Bond about a personal favor, sort of an “off the record” assignment. He wants Bond to join him at an exclusive gentleman's club called Blades to play poker with a wealthy entrepreneur named Hugo Drax. M suspects Drax is cheating, but wants Bond to discover his method. This segment of the novel includes intense rounds of bridge as Bond verifies Drax's cheating and beats him with a stacked deck of cards, winning seven times his annual salary. All of this is important because the narrative focuses on Bond and Drax's working relationship later.

Bond's official assignment comes to fruition when a Ministry of Supply security officer is fatally shot in a facility housing England's first nuclear missile. This missile has been created by Drax's company and is to take flight as a demo version for England and foreign powers. Bond is assigned as the security officer's replacement in an effort to determine what's going on. I found his investigation hard-boiled and edgy, culminating in a high-speed chase between Bond and Drax's crew from the town of Deal to London. Of course, it wouldn't be a Bond novel without the inclusion of a beautiful co-worker named Brand. 

Moonraker is rather unique due to its settings. The entire novel takes place in and around London, with a focus on atmosphere as Bond is centralized on the sprawling White Cliffs of Dover, the countryside, and the battering of the North Sea and the English Channel. There's a sense of isolation as Bond gazes at the ocean at night, listening for the ship's foghorns and spotting a beacon. I felt that this, combined with Bond's lonely position in the book's last pages, added a sense of solitude to the story. 

Drax's backstory of his rise to criminality, war atrocities, and his fevered attempts to destroy London paired nicely with Bond's “do or die” mission. There's violence, sexiness, thrills, car chases, shootouts, and the pesky Russians to keep the pages moving at a brisk pace. The storytelling improved drastically from the rather average prior installment, Live and Let Die. While that book was action-packed, it came  across a bit campy when compared to the series debut in Casino Royale. Ian Fleming is all business in Moonraker, making it a fan favorite among James Bond fans. Recommended! 

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Earl Drake #06 - Operation Drumfire

After the success of The Name of the Game is Death (1962) and One Endless Hour (1969), crime-noir author Dan J. Marlowe found his heist hero in protagonist Earl Drake, the “man with nobody's face.” The Earl Drake series, for lack of a better name, includes 12 total novels, all published by Fawcett Gold Medal between 1962 and 1976. We've covered the first five novels right here at Paperback Warrior and continue our coverage with this sixth installment, Operation Drumfire, published in 1972.

In Operation Drumfire, readers become fairly familiar with Earl Drake's backstory. He was a professional bank robber who now works occasional assignments for a special agent named Erikson. It is never explained who Erikson works for beyond hinting at a sub rosa agency deep within Washington D.C. Drake's lover is a tenacious former barkeep named Hazel, who has a talent for gambling on horses and the skills to pilot the couple's airplane. She's also a sexy cowgirl that owns a sprawling ranch built from the fortunes of her former husband. Beginning in the series fifth installment, Operation Breakthrough, the duo is joined by an eccentric martial arts expert named Candy and his Chinese girlfriend Chen Yi.

In this book's opening chapters, Erikson visits Drake and Hazel to show them a video of a bank heist at a horse-racing track. Erikson's agency feels that a think-tank defense contractor called the Institute of Defense Analysis (IDA) may be behind it. The idea is that mathematicians inside the agency put together an elaborate plan to knock off the track. Now, due to Erikson's involvement in a meeting between senior leaders in Mexico and the US, he's touching shoulders with IDA. His growing suspicions of their abilities may lead to chaos with the meeting. He wants Drake and Hazel to infiltrate the agency by going undercover as mathematicians inside their headquarters. 

Honestly, I have no idea what is happening in this book. None of it makes any sense to me. Normally, I can stay fairly entrenched with whatever Marlowe is springing, but I'm not even sure he knew what was going on. It's like a chain of events including a Black Panthers type of military presence in Oakland that Candy must deal with. Then, Drake has to fake his math skills inside the agency while Hazel gains clues for something or another. There's an explosion somewhere and a firefight at the end. It was like Marlowe had individual events he wanted to schedule in the narrative, but had no logical way to connect them. 

But, it isn't all completely lost. Drake changes his old snub-nosed .38 revolver for an automatic .9mm. I felt this was a major change for the character, like a promotion into the big leagues. Also, one of the four main characters is killed off in this installment. Shamefully, I felt good about that. Other than those positives, Operation Drumfire is more like Operation Dumpsterfire. 

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Elin Warner #01 - The Sanatorium

According to Penguin Random House, Sarah Pearse grew up in Devon, UK and studied creative writing and English at the University of Warwick. Her debut book, The Sanatorium, was published in 2021 and became a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. Apparently, actress Reese Witherspoon knows a thing or two about books, and has a Book Club in which she selected The Sanatorium as a featured novel. Witherspoon is irrelevant to me, but I'm a sucker for locked room mysteries and this one looked appealing on Target's bookshelf. 

The Sanatorium introduces readers to British Detective Elin Warner, a character that Pearse is also featuring in the 2022 sequel The Retreat. Elin has been a successful, veteran detective for years, but after a particularly gruesome investigation, she's taking a sabbatical. What better place to rekindle energy than a formerly abandoned mental hospital in the Swiss Alps that has been lavishly restructured into a posh hotel? With a raging winter storm outside and the roads cut off, Elin and her husband discover that a killer is on the loose in the hotel, knocking off the trapped guests one by one as some sort of revenge tactic. 

There's so much to like about the story – great main character, multiple murder investigations, an intriguing backstory, excellent atmosphere and location – but it just fails to be overly stimulating. It's nearly 400 pages, which has become the mandatory publishing requirement for thrillers, and that's an eternity for readers to become trapped in this cavernous hotel with dull and uninspiring guests. By page 300, I no longer cared to learn the killer's identity or to even suspect who's next on the chopping block. I had lost interest completely.

If you love modern thrillers that heavily rely on lengthy dialogue to devour a high page-count, then The Sanatorium is awaiting your stay. 

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The Make-Believe Man

Elizabeth Jane Phillips (1916-1996) authored nearly 20 stand-alone novels over the course of thirty years. Often, she adopted the pseudonym E.P. Fenwick or used Elizabeth Fenwick to write her crime-fiction and suspense books, Her 1963 suspense novel The Make-Believe Man was nominated for an Edgar Award by The Mystery Writers of America. It was originally published in hardcover by Harper & Row, then published again by Avon in a paperback edition. Thankfully, Stark House Press has recently reprinted some of Fenwick's novels including The Make-Believe Man. It is in a 2022 twofer with the author's A Friend of Mary Rose (1961) and a wonderful, informative introduction by Curtis Evans.

Norma is a single mother and widow living temporarily in Detroit with her mother, Ms. Moore. In the book's opening pages, Ms. Moore, is leaving town for a few days to visit Norma's brother. She provides adequate instructions on what to do in her absence and the conversation brings up a former tenant that Ms. Moore once had at the house. His name was Cliff and he was a fine renter that was asked to leave to make room for Norma and her son Jimmy months ago.

In Ms. Moore's absence, Norma is enjoying the house and her clerical job at work. Jimmy is fond of the elderly neighbors and often goes there after school. But, one night Cliff shows up at Norma's front door asking to come inside. Cliff is really peculiar, has a black eye, and explains to Norma that he just needs a few days to rest and then he'll be moving on to another town and job. Norma says no and is genuinely creeped out by Cliff's odd behavior. Cliff finally leaves, but when Norma checks the mantle, the extra key to the home's front door is now missing. 

Norma has the locks changed, but the suspense begins to build as Cliff makes a stop at Norma's work to ask about her whereabouts. Then, he calls her on the phone and suggests that Ms. Moore is really his mother too. But, she isn't, he's just psychotic. He becomes a raging lunatic when he learns his key no longer opens the front door. From there, The Make-Believe Man transcends into some really scary happenings. 

According to my research, Fenwick really loved these “domestic menace” types of stories and it is clear she perfected it based on the quality of The Make-Believe Man. Cliff is a scary individual, made downright terrifying when readers learn about his turbulent past. I enjoyed Norma's strength, not only as a mother, but as a widow and fighter. There's a sense of intrigue when a detective begins an investigation to find Cliff. Fenwick also sprinkles in an admirable character named Benning as Norma's potential love interest and co-worker. The three characters collaborate well and I enjoyed the police procedural styling of the book's second half.

Overall, there's nothing to dislike about Fenwick's writing style or this book. Stark House Press has made a wise choice in reprinting this lost classic. It's a tightrope of suspense, scares, and action that culminates in a harrowing, unforgettable ending. In other words, you should read it right now. 

Get the book HERE.

Killer

Before he was science-fiction royalty, Robert Silverberg was a cranking out cheap genre paperbacks to make ends meet. His output included sleaze novels like 1965’s Passion Killer — originally released under the pseudonym of Don Elliott when the author was 29. After discovering that the book is actually a tidy bit of crime noir fiction, Stark House Press imprint Black Gat books has re-released the paperback under the name Killer.

Lee Floyd has just arrived in Manhattan after being hired to kill Howard Gorman’s wife, Ethyl. You see, Howard has recently met a girl named Marie and has decided to upgrade. As such, he needs Hitman Lee’s help in disposing of this Ethyl situation.

For her part, Marie is happy to allow a wealthy sucker like Howard to cover her living expenses, but she finds her benefactor rather repugnant. Nevertheless, having one client paying her bills is easier than working full-time as a call girl. All things being equal, Marie enjoys lesbian sex and Silverberg pulls no 1965 punches in his erotic writing. This is definitely a sex book, and those graphic scenes comprise probably half the novel. You can decide if that’s good news or bad news.

There are some interesting crime noir manipulations and double-crosses among the sex scenes that made Killer a lot of fun to read. It’s not the top-tier hitman fiction we periodically receive from Max Allan Collins and Lawrence Block, but it’s light-years better than most 1960s sleaze fiction. Many authors aren’t proud of their output in this genre, but I’m glad Silverberg has made peace with his past because Killer is a winner. Not a masterpiece, but certainly worth your time. 

Get the book HERE

Five Total Strangers

I spend a lot of time at Target. My wife loves the place and one of my daughters loves throwing away wads of cash for overpriced records of today's trendy pop stars. What's a book-loving Dad supposed to do other than abandon the dependents at the shoe aisle and then hang for a half-hour in the ragtag section of books that Target deems as literature? The end-result is that the family walks out with dog toys, socks, those little colored egg-shaped lip balms and any modern thriller that resembles a horror novel with blurbs like “addictive and unpredictable”. Thus, this is the reason I now own Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards.

When readers first meet Mira, she's landed in a Philadelphia airport at the start of a blizzard outside. She's a teenager, in high school, and her decision making skills aren't fabulous. Due to the next flight being canceled, she decides to take a free ride from her seatmate, an arrogant young woman named Harper. It's like an early scene out of the old John Hughes' film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. This awkward pairing with a complete stranger then becomes complicated. Harper claims that three of her friends will be joining them in the car because they all need a ride. Yet, once they are collectively joined in the vehicle, Mira learns that the trio of people are complete strangers to Harper. Why did she lie?

The author includes these eerie, handwritten notes every few chapters from Mira's secret admirer. As the book continues, readers will notice that the notes are written months after the events that take place on Mira's ride from Hell. The notes also suggest that whoever is writing them was a passenger in Harper's car that day, but readers won't learn their identity until the book's final chapters. 

Five Total Strangers has all of the ingredients for a successful thriller – suspicious people, a harrowing event, an inescapable situation, and a terrifying atmosphere. The author's use of ice and snow on Pennsylvania's rural back roads made the atmosphere nearly claustrophobic, heightening the intensity inside the car. 

As good as these ingredients are, the book is just too long at 300 pages. Eventually, the mystery and the shady passengers couldn't keep my attention, which ruined the ultimate reveal at the end. By that point I just wanted the ride to be over. If you love slow-burns, then this one may be for you. I will add that the book is young-adult, but nearly all of the horror and thrillers these days caters to that audience, so don't let that throw you off. If you can get it for a few bucks, it might be worth your time. 

Get the book HERE.

Image of a Ghost

We've talked a great deal about prolific author Norman Daniels, but haven't posted a single review for his wife's work. Dorothy Daniels (born Dorothy Smith) authored nurse-fiction and romantic short stories before finding success in the gothic genre. She sold over 10 million books between 1965-1975, culminating in 150 total works in print. My first experience with the author is her 1973 novel Image of a Ghost. It was published by Warner and then reprinted again in 1976. Both feature artwork by prolific Men's Adventure Magazine artist Vic Prezio.

Janet Bancroft inherited a fortune after the recent death of her mother. A year and a half later, Janet spots a paranormal article in a French magazine explaining odd occurrences in a large Maine house. Photographs are included that depict a ghostly woman standing on a staircase. The article includes an invitation from the homeowner asking anyone who recognizes the apparition to call or visit. Janet hurries home, packs a bag, and drives to Maine to talk with the owners. Why? Because Janet recognizes the ghostly woman asher dead mother!

Image of a Ghost is mostly a traditional mystery that tips a foot into a murder procedural. The narrative is mostly just cut-and-paste as the owners, Janet, a dashing male attorney, and others remain in the home hoping to locate the answer to why Janet's mother has risen from the grave. This is a gothic novel, so anyone worth their salt knows there's nothing paranormal about it. The typical Scooby-Doo explanation is offered, but that doesn't necessarily leave out any violent murder or sadistic hi-jinx. Daniels' plot includes a murder mystery as fingers are pointed at all of the guests hoping to uncover clues. 

Overall, this is just a below average gothic that is missing a proper atmosphere and story. The characters are one-dimensional, the ghost isn't that interesting, and the murder mystery leaves a lot to be desired. In other words, Image of a Ghost is an image worth forgetting. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

The Iron Marshal

The Iron Marshal, L'Amour's 94th novel, was originally published by Bantam in 1979. It is the traditional L'Amour storytelling experience about the unlikely hero ascending from rock bottom to new, lofty heights based on overcoming grueling hardships and oppression. This sort of story is what L'Amour thrived on and this novel proves he was an absolute master of the craft. 

In the book's opening pages, readers are introduced to young Tom Shanaghy, still wet behind the ears as he grows accustomed to life in the big city of New York. It's the late 1800s, and the Irishman immediately finds a brawl on the docks before finding a lead on a job as a server and barkeep at a local pub. The dive is owned by a man named Clancy, and it isn't long before Tom is working his way through the businessman's ranks, from blacksmith to financial clerk on a journey that leads him rubbing shoulders with Clancy on his financial affairs. Eventually, the novel begins to resemble an early mob story with warring factions fighting over pubs and gambling. 

The narrative finds its rhythm when Shanaghy escapes the city by hopping a train. Exhausted, he sleeps his way to Kansas, where he is thrown from the train by a railroad detective. Oddly, when he lands on the hard ground, he finds that the detective has tossed a large backpack to him as well. Inside are supplies, clothes, a revolver and a shotgun. After Shanaghy runs right into a lynching, the man he helps free advises Shanaghy that the pack and shotgun belong to a lawman named Rig Barrett. He says that anyone carrying the famous shotgun is going to have a target on their back. Has Shanaghy assumed the identity of this Iron Marshal? 

L'Amour's novel turns into a remarkable crime-noir once Shanaghy arrives in the small Kansas town. The narrative threads a number of solid plot points together, but it all centers around the town choosing Shanaghy as their new marshal. His order of business is to make sure the train carrying a large payroll isn't robbed. But, after investigating, he learns the heist is happening, but doesn't know all of the players. It could be residents, retailers, criminals from out of town or the railroad men themselves. This is the magic of the story, like any hardboiled private-eye story of the mid-20th century. The mystery is both compelling as well as action-packed. 

The Iron Marshal is just a fantastic western with an extremely likable hero in Tom Shanaghy. I loved the side-stories and how L'Amour neatly tied it all together to deliver an extremely entertaining reading experience. Highly recommended for both fans of westerns and hardboiled procedural storytelling.

Note - The model for the cover pictured here is the "face of a thousand paperbacks", Jason Savas. We told his story in a 2020 article HERE. 

Get a copy of the book HERE.

The Grave's in the Meadow

To the extent that he’s recalled at all, Manning Lee Stokes (1911-1976) is remembered for his pseudonymous work in men’s adventure paperback series titles, including John Eagle: Expeditor, Richard Blade, Nick Carter: Killmaster, and The Aquanauts. However, Stokes began his career authoring mystery novels beginning in 1945 and beyond. His crime-fiction output includes a largely unknown hardcover novel from 1959 titled The Grave’s in the Meadow that was later reprinted by both Dell and Manor Books in paperback.

Our narrator is an amoral sociopath named Dick Ludwell who just witnessed the murder of a middleweight boxer for refusing to take a dive. Dick was the only person to witness the killing at the hands of a ruthless mob henchman, and he correctly figures this makes him a marked man. Dick is a crooked newspaper reporter who supplements his income by providing tips to the local mob boss, but this cozy relationship isn’t going to be enough to save Dick’s bacon this time.

Dick decides to hide 100 miles from the city in his friend’s vacant farmhouse, and this is where the plot really takes off. The farm is located on the outskirts of a small town where everyone knows one another, and Dick assumes the identity of a dead hobo for his new life in exile. As Dick tries to assimilate into small-town life, an astute genre fiction reader begins to see exactly the direction the paperback is headed. He meets a girl and a sweet relationship evolves bolstered by the lies Dick tells her about his identity and background. Could this story be the tale of a heel redeemed by true love?

About halfway through the novel – right when you think you see where it’s going – there is a bonkers scene that turns the plot into a nasty, violent noir. I promise that there’s not a single reader who will ever forget the scene that sparks the paperback’s turning point. I never saw it coming and I read a ton of this stuff. From that point forward, the book erupts into one of the finest crime-noir stories I can recall reading in a long, long time. It reminds me of Dan J. Marlowe’s The Name of the Game is Death, but this Stokes novel predates the Marlowe classic by three full years.

The paperback sprints to the finish line with an exciting, bloody climax. A couple pages from the conclusion, you’ll be dying to know what’s going to happen at the very end. Stokes’ plotting is superb and he does a fantastic job getting you into the narrator’s warped mind. I honestly can’t get over how exciting and wild The Grave’s in the Meadow is, and I can’t believe it hasn't been reprinted since 1973. This is a forgotten paperback definitely worth rediscovering. Readers should seek out a copy, and reprint publishing houses should acquire the rights and resurrect this lost classic. Highest recommendation. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Ed Noon #17 - Assassins Don’t Die in Bed

The character of Ed Noon began as a traditional wisecracking, skirt-chasing private eye in the mold of Richard Prather’s Shell Scott. Over time, author Michael Avallone (1924-1999) pulled a clever trick and began sending Noon on spy missions at the request of his recurring client, the U.S. President. Such an adventure is the 17th Ed Noon novel, Assassins Don’t Die in Bed from 1978, currently available as an affordable ebook. 

The novel begins with a call to Noon on his red, white and blue telephone providing a direct line to the President. The Man needs Noon to shadow a U.S. elder statesman named Henry Hallmark on a tour of Europe in furtherance of maintaining the peace. The President has reason to believe that Hallmark (America’s Churchill) is in danger of being assassinated and needs Noon to keep him safe. If you’re wondering why the U.S. law enforcement, diplomatic, and intelligence community doesn’t just work together to protect our famous emissary, you have no business reading this paperback. 

Aboard the ocean liner is an array of colorful characters and suspect assassins. This includes a Japanese Sumo wrestler named Buddha who can snap silver dollars in two between his fingers. There’s also a woman named Gilda Tiger who is regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world. Will Noon lay her? I’ll never tell! There’s also an Indian political leader seeking to shepherd his starving Hindu nation under the political umbrella of the Red Chinese. 

Further dressing up this cruise ship mystery is an assortment of spy gadgets Noon brings along for the ride. It’s clear by 1968 that Avallone was influenced by the James Bond films, and he wasn’t alone. During this period, there was an arms race to crown a paperback series as “The American James Bond.” With Noon, Avallone threw his hat in the ring and decided to have some real fun with the concept. 

Overall, Assassins Don’t Die in Bed is a better-than-average novel for the genre with a really terrific hardboiled ending. Avallone was a solid author who could always be counted on for a good, pulpy read. If you’re new to the Ed Noon party, you safely can start with this one and not be disappointed. Recommended. 

Buy a copy of this ebook HERE.

Nowhere to Hide

R. Patrick Gates is a teacher, young adult and horror author, husband, and dog owner. Beginning in the 1990s, Gates has authored a number of horror novels like Tunnel, Deathwalker, Savage, and The Prison. The author created a two book series, Grim Memorials and Grim Reapings, about an evil character named Eleanor Grimm terrorizing the small town of Northwood. My first experience with Gates is his psychological horror novel Nowhere to Hide. It was originally published by Pinnacle in 2008 and now exists in a brand new edition as an audio book by Capricorn Literary. 

The book begins with a bloodbath. Young Billy Teags returns from school to discover his mother and brother have been brutally murdered. As gruesome as this scene is, it pales in comparison to the horrific events that unfold throughout the narrative. Billy discovers that the killer is still inside the house.

In Nowhere to Hide, Gates blends a unique concept with present and past events to create this terrifying horror novel. Readers know what Billy is experiencing in the present, but flashbacks to the days before bring new light to the situation. Billy knew about the killer in advance and had notified his parents of a murder he witnessed in his dream. They didn't believe Billy's account, not realizing that Billy has a psychic link to the killer. 

Gates is far from a traditional storyteller and has a rather abstract style that is reminiscent of Jack Ketchum or Bryan Smith. The writing possesses violent, in-your-face imagery that's not for the squeamish. While the horror is prevalent, Gate's creates a multifaceted monster that surprisingly fastens an emotional bond with the reader. In terms of thrilling suspense, it's the reader hiding out with Billy as he navigates the suburban home's hallways, closets, and rooms in a tight cat-and-mouse contest. 

If you want traditional, small-town horror or a weak monster of the week, Nowhere to Hide isn't for you. Instead, this book exists for horror fans that crave a deeper level of psychological terror. Along with this offering, Capricorn Literary is reprinting classic horror novels, all smoothly presented in fantastic audio editions (or Kindle/paperback). Check out the publisher's other authors like Jeff Rovin, John Russo, and Allen Lee Harris. 

Get the audio book HERE.

Say it with Bullets

Richard Pitts Powell (1908-1999) was a Princeton man, an ad man, and a newspaper man who worked on Douglas MacArthur’s staff during World War 2. After the war, he proceeded to write 19 novels in a variety of genres. His 1953 paperback, Say It with Bullets, found new life as a Hard Case Crime reprint in 2006 and remains available today in digital and paperback editions from Wildside Press. 

The novel wastes no time thrusting the reader into the action.  Bill Wayne is traveling across the U.S. with the goal of tracking down five old friends - war buddies and later business partners. One of the men shot Bill in the back overseas in China. Bill is not sure which one of his buddies tried to kill him, but he intends to put that old friend in his grave once he figures it out. 

Bill will be traveling many miles in this ad hoc vendetta investigation. His suspects live in Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Another interesting wrinkle: Bill  and his .45 are covering this ground in a bus filled with tourists who signed on with Treasure Trips, Inc. for a tour of the American West. The set-up is totally contrived, but highly-creative and a perfect way for the story to unfold. 

Another contrivance is a sweet woman on the bus named Holly, who coincidentally knew Bill when they were kids. Holly always had the hots for Bill, but he’d prefer to fly under the radar on this trip. After all, he’s more interested in murder than seeing Yosemite Park. Bill initially shuns Holly’s advances, but the reader can see where this storyline is headed. 

Flashbacks fill in the details of the back-shot that failed to kill Bill in China after a heated argument with his five business partners. After returning home to Philadelphia, another unknown subject took another shot at Bill. He narrowed the suspects down to the five partners, which brings us back to this weird bus ride. 

When Bill reaches his first suspect, the plot takes an unexpected — and rather clever turn. I won’t give it away, but the mission changes from a standard revenge story to a mystery in which the hunter is being hunted. You won’t be disappointed. Leave it at that. 

The author’s prose is straightforward and no-frills, but he had a real knack for snappy dialogue. As a protagonist, Bill has an evolution from a cranky misanthrope to a fully-realized man with whom the reader can eventually empathize. By this point in his career, Powell had  nine books under his belt, so he had cracked the code of writing sharp, terse prose with great pacing. 

Say It with Bullets is an easy recommendation, and has spurred my interest in reading more of Powell’s writing. Thanks to several forward-leaning reprint houses, it won’t take much hunting to find more of his work. Buy a copy of this book HERE.